Great white shark leaps into fisherman’s boat

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Fisherman Terry Selwood, 73, is still trying to figure out how it all exactly happened. Selwood was fishing off of Evans Head on Australia’s east coast on Saturday. Suddenly a great white shark leaped out of the ocean beside him. “The bloody thing just jumped in my boat,” Selwood stated. The shark was later measured and was almost 9 feet long. “As he was coming down, he hit me on the arm. He knocked me off balance, of course, and I just fell on my hands and knees,” said Selwood. “I looked there to the side and … (thought) ‘this is a bloody shark.” Even being both shocked and injured, the fisherman reacted quickly.”He was just doing the mad dance and he was thrashing everywhere, so I got up as quick as I could, I grabbed the rocket launcher up the top, and I climbed up on the gunnel,” Selwood said. Then he called for help on his radio.

The Evans Head Marine Rescue Unit said that it launched a rescue boat after receiving a distress signal early Saturday evening. A rescue helicopter also flew in to help. When rescuers arrived, they found Selwood “covered in blood with numerous lacerations on his right forearm,” apparently said by the Evans Head Marine Rescue Unit. “A large shark was also found in the cabin of the not so large fishing boat.” Selwood was then moved to the rescue boat, where his injuries were treated with care.While on his way to shore, Selwood told rescuers he was sitting on an ice chest in the center of his boat when the shark jumped out of the water, cleared the boat’s engine and landed on the deck, where it began violently moving around.

While trying to get to his feet and distance himself from the shark, Selwood was relentlessly knocked about the around the boat, which is how he got most of his injuries. Eventually, he managed to climb onto the port-side of the boat, where he stayed as the shark continued to thrash about on the deck.The shark was later handed over to the Department of Primary Industries where it will be evaluated and used for research. On Monday it was verified that the shark was a great white shark, according to the statement. And although he received a few stitches, he is doing well.